Welcome, or welcome back, to Georgia Tech! The Ivan Allen College has rolled out a bunch of new hosted web services that we’d like you to know about for the upcoming school year. Take a look at our list of IAC services:

It may be helpful to know that while your email account will be removed, your departmental server accounts will stick around, and you can archive your existing email to your hard drive, and set up an email forward to send your “@gatech.edu” email to an off-campus account of your choice.

Anyone who is still using an old Windows XP PC or virtual machine should contact LMC Support and let us know, so we can get you upgraded! Microsoft has finally ceased pushing out support updates and security patches for XP, effectively ending its usability. We have an interest in getting these machines upgraded or off our networks to prevent the spread of malware, so drop us an email if you’re still using XP!

Burning the ISO to a bootable DVD, or using a utility to create a bootable live USB drive, will let you preview Linux in a live environment without making changes to your computer. It runs directly from the CD or USB. Always back up your important data first, though! There is an installer available from the live system that can erase your hard disk, so make sure that whatever you’re doing, you have a copy of your important files first.

A live DVD/USB system also means that you can boot and run your computer without a hard drive attached. So if you have an old PC whose hard drive has failed, it can still be used.

I’d like to call attention to some news articles, and a recent announcement by Linksys, which manufactures a widely-adopted line of home wifi routers. If your home router is made by Linksys, please refer to the company’s website, support FAQ, and their technical article, linked below, for information on an ongoing security problem which can, under adverse conditions, allow an Internet worm, being referred to in the media as the “Moon malware,” to gain control of several models of Linksys router.

If infected, home users’ traffic is redirected through a hostile DNS server (meaning affected households could be re-routed to fake banking or social media login pages, and passwords stolen, for example), and the worm uses the home customers’ Internet connection to spread itself, hogging bandwidth and slowing Internet service.

Linksys has published a technical article with links to instructions on disabling the Remote Administration feature and updating the firmware, however it should be noted that there’s no official list (yet) of all vulnerable router models, nor is there a current published firmware update that Linksys has yet released to directly address this vulnerability. The official patch is still pending.